A 40-year-old Corydon, Indiana man is facing felony arson and wanton endangerment charges after investigators say he deliberately set fire to fabric and tampered with electrical wiring and a ninth-floor standpipe valve at a Louisville hotel, sending water cascading down eight stories and racking up more than $100,000 in damage.
Timothy Hardsaw was extradited from Harrison County Jail in Corydon and transferred into Louisville Metro Corrections custody on September 11, according to Z93 Country. The arrest warrant stemmed from an incident on June 5 at the Hilton Garden Inn on Crittenden Drive, where the Louisville Fire Department responded to an active fire alarm and detected the odor of smoke on the eighth floor.
What firefighters found was more than a smoke smell. Officials discovered multiple pieces of burned fabric scattered across the eighth floor, along with canvas artwork near the eighth-floor elevator lobby showing soot deposits consistent with contact from a lighter, per the station's report. Investigators also found several electrical wires disconnected and altered control wiring inside a tenth-floor box, along with a sprinkler pipe pulled down from the ceiling.
Water Cascaded From the Ninth Floor to the Ground
The most destructive part of the incident came from the building's plumbing, not its flames. The Louisville Fire Department found water cascading down the north stairwell from a ninth-floor standpipe valve, which caused massive flooding that ran from the stairwell all the way to ground level, according to the same account. That flooding caused catastrophic damage to the eighth floor while other guests were staying at the hotel during the fire and flooding, creating what authorities describe as a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury.
The Hilton Garden Inn Louisville Airport sits at 2735 Crittenden Drive, an eight-story property with 210 guest rooms adjacent to the Kentucky Exposition Center at Gate 4 and 1.5 miles from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, per Musselman Hotels. The Louisville Metro Arson Bureau took over the investigation into the hotel fire and flooding, the specialized unit that reported a 38.5% clearance rate after leading 357 fire investigations across the city in 2025, according to a bureau statistics summary posted to Facebook.
A March Traffic Stop Connects to the Same Corridor
Hardsaw was also served an outstanding bench warrant for driving on a suspended license when he was booked, one tied to a March traffic citation issued on Phillips Lane. Public booking records reviewed on Facebook additionally show Hardsaw was booked on charges of operating on a suspended or revoked license and first-offense failure to maintain required insurance alongside the arson and endangerment counts.
Hardsaw was arraigned in Jefferson District Court on September 12, where he was charged with third-degree arson, first-degree wanton endangerment, and first-degree criminal mischief, and entered a not-guilty plea. A judge set his bond at $100,000 full cash, with conditions that include home incarceration if bond is posted, a prohibition on possessing fire-starting materials, and a bar on Hardsaw returning to the Hilton Garden Inn. He is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing in Jefferson District Court on September 21.
What the Charges Could Mean Under Kentucky Law
Under Kentucky Revised Statutes, third-degree arson is a Class D felony carrying one to five years in prison and fines up to $10,000, according to Cooley Iuliano Robey PLLC. First-degree wanton endangerment is likewise a Class D felony punishable by one to five years when committed without a firearm, per the Legislative Research Commission. The criminal mischief charge falls under the same felony tier after Kentucky's 2024 Safer Kentucky Act lowered the property damage threshold for first-degree criminal mischief from $1,000 to $500, according to the Fleenor Law Firm, meaning the six-figure damage total at the Hilton Garden Inn easily clears the felony bar. Anyone convicted of a Class D felony in Kentucky serves time under the Kentucky Department of Corrections, which reimburses local county jails at a statutory rate of $35.34 per inmate per day, per legislative fiscal records.
This case fits a broader pattern of intentional fire cases moving through Louisville courts this year. Hoodline has reported on a Labor Day arson that gutted an East Louisville home, as well as an August case in which a Louisville man was accused of setting a fire between his fiancée's wheelchair and an exit. Louisville Fire & Rescue's Fire Prevention Bureau, separately, completed 8,391 commercial fire safety inspections and 668 new construction plan reviews across the city in 2025, underscoring the scale of routine fire safety enforcement in commercial buildings like the Hilton Garden Inn.
